MPMETIS(1)

💖 MPMETIS(1) 💖

okay bestie, gather round — this is the manual page for mpmetis, and honestly? it's giving mesh-partitioning main character energy. 🌸

---

✨ NAME ✨

mpmetis — Partitions a mesh into a specified number of parts.

---

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

mpmetis [options] meshfile nparts

---

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

💅 Required parameters

• meshfile — this is where you keep the mesh that's getting partitioned. like, the whole point. 🦋
• nparts — the number of partitions to split the mesh into. you pick a number, it makes that many pieces. slay. ✨

🧚 Optional parameters

• -gtype=string — tells it which graph to use for computing the partitioning. your options are:
  • dual — partition the dual graph of the mesh [default]
  • nodal — partition the nodal graph of the mesh
• -ptype=string — picks the scheme for computing the k-way partitioning. the possible values:
  • rb — Recursive bisectioning
  • kway — Direct k-way partitioning [default]
• -ctype=string — the scheme used to match the vertices of the graph during the coarsening. your choices:
  • rm — Random matching
  • shem — Sorted heavy-edge matching [default]
• -iptype=string [applies only when -ptype=rb] — the scheme used to compute the initial partitioning of the graph. values:
  • grow — Grow a bisection using a greedy strategy [default]
  • random — Compute a bisection at random
• -objtype=string [applies only when -ptype=kway] — what objective the partitioning routines will optimize. options:
  • cut — Minimize the edgecut [default]
  • vol — Minimize the total communication volume
• -contig [applies only when -ptype=kway] — asks the partitioning routines to try to produce partitions that are contiguous. heads up though: if the input graph isn't connected, this option gets ignored. 💀
• -minconn [applies only when -ptype=kway] — asks the partitioning routines to try to minimize the maximum degree of the subdomain graph — that's the graph where each partition is a node, and edges connect subdomains that share an interface. iykyk. 🫶
• -tpwgts=filename — names the file that stores the target weights for each partition. by default, all partitions are assumed to be the same size. ⚖️
• -ufactor=int — the maximum allowed load imbalance among the partitions. a value of x means the allowed load imbalance is 1+x/1000.

For ptype=rb, the load imbalance is measured as the ratio of 2*max(left,right)/(left+right), where left and right are the sizes of the respective partitions at each bisection.

For ptype=kway, it's measured as the ratio of max_i(pwgts[i])/avgpwgt, where pwgts[i] is the weight of the ith partition and avgpwgt is the sum of the total vertex weights divided by the number of partitions requested.

For ptype=rb, the default value is 1 (i.e., load imbalance of 1.001). For ptype=kway, the default value is 30 (i.e., load imbalance of 1.03). 🎯

• -ncommon=int — the common number of nodes that two elements must have in order to put an edge between them in the dual graph. Default is 1.
• -niter=int — number of iterations for the refinement algorithms at each stage of the uncoarsening process. Default is 10. 🔁
• -ncuts=int — how many different partitionings it'll compute. the final partitioning is whichever one achieves the best edgecut or communication volume. Default is 1.
• -nooutput — says no partitioning file should be generated. zero output, zero stress. 🙈
• -seed=int — selects the seed of the random number generator. 🌱
• -dbglvl=int — selects the dbglvl.
• -help — prints this message. hi, that's this. 👋

---

and that's the whole thing, bestie 🎀 this was mpmetis version 5.1.0.3, dated July 2025. go partition something gorgeous. periodt. 💜✨